Can Bangalore sustain its early success?
The Royal Challengers Bangalore started their tournament with a defeat at the hands of the Kolkata Knight Riders but bounced right back to get four wins out of the next five.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore started their tournament with a defeat at the hands of the Kolkata Knight Riders but bounced right back to get four wins out of the next five. They are comfortably in the top half of the league table at this point but can Kumble’s men sustain this form? The Challengers have managed this early success largely because of the consistent performances from their three top order batsmen. Jacques Kallis and Manish Pandey have gotten them off to flying starts on a regular basis with four opening partnerships of 70 runs or more. Kallis has scored 310 runs so far while Pandey has managed 179. Robin Uthappa, with 177 runs has been the third highest scorer in their side. Three of these batsmen together account for over 70 percent of the total runs that the Challengers have managed as a team.
The team comprises of some other big names in Rahul Dravid, Eoin Morgan and Mark Boucher but all three of them have had very little opportunity to spend time in the middle. Dravid has managed just 36 runs in three innings while Eoin Morgan has scored just 35 in the four opportunities that have come his way. The Challengers could find themselves in a tight spot if their top three start to dip in form. The dependency was clearly evident in the defeat against the Delhi Daredevils where the openers got them off to another solid start but once they lost their top three, none of the remaining batsmen could make a telling contribution.
